Faster Than Light

About 10,000 gently used books, CDs, DVDs and other items will be for sale at the Towson Library beginning Thursday, April 14. It'sthe 17th annual Friends of the Towson Library Book Sale, and it will prove once again that the book, as an art form, is not a goner.

The sale may be the only situation in which taking away books and other items from a library makes it better.The sale is scheduled from Thursday, April 14, through Sunday, April 17. Proceeds will be used to buy amenities for the Towson Library not covered by the county budget.

Last year's sale grossed $12,616, according to Friends president Dorothy Fraquelli. After expenditures for rented tables and signs (which can be used again in future years), that left $10,090 that will pay for making the library "such an inviting place to be," she said.

The sales have raised the money to buy prizes for the Summer Reading Club, tables for the bridge cafe, the dragon mural in the former faux koi pond, seating in the garden, computers, databases, art, plants and other items.

Admission is free, for Thursday evening from 5:30 to 8 p.m., when members of the Friends get in free, but the public has to pay $10 for the privilege of getting "first choice" of materials.

Sale hours continue Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday, 1 to 4 p.m., when stacks of most books and many other items will be sold for $2 a vertical foot. This will be the third sale for Knollwood-Donnybrook resident Sue Cornish, a member of the Friends group.

Books they expect will sell include five sets of the "Millenium" books by Stieg Larsson beginning with "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," a good selection of Maryland books, children's and young adult books, as well as books on trains.